York welcomes buskers with new guidance designed to promote harmony on the streets

York City Council have followed on from Liverpool to become the second major UK city to adopt new collaborative guidelines for busking. The Council worked closely with the local busking community, the Musician’s Union, the Keep Streets Live Campaign and local businesses to produce a document designed to encourage and welcome buskers from all over the world.

‘A Guide to Busking in York’ is very different in tone and content from busking policies in many UK towns and cities, which all too often see busking as a potential problem to be managed and restricted, rather than as a grassroots cultural activity to be celebrated. York’s new approach recognises that the busking tradition is characterised by informality, spontaneity and democratic access to public space. The new guidelines replace a cumbersome and coercive regime where the local authority used to charge buskers for permits and hold auditions. Once upon a time, buskers without permits were moved on and many would-be performers were turned away because the system of obtaining a license and attending an audition put people off from coming to York to perform. Until an online petition was started by the Keep Streets Live Campaign. It was signed by over 4000 people and called on York to scrap their restrictive policy and work with the busking community to produce new guidance. The new guidelines are the result of that successful campaign and replaces the old permit and audition system.

Now, no ‘license’, ‘permit’ or audition is required to busk in York. Instead, ‘A Guide to Busking In York’ sets out some simple principles for buskers based upon common sense, consideration and good will. The guidance also sets out practical steps for resolving potential issues between buskers and others who share public space in the city before problems have a chance to escalate. This new approach safeguards spontaneity, whilst allowing appropriate action to be taken whenever issues do arise.

York have also taken the welcome step of publishing a condensed guidance document aimed specifically at city centre businesses and residents to help them resolve any busking-related issues amicably and to explain the busking guidance clearly. It asks those who may have an issue with a busking performance to politely speak to the busker themselves and reach a compromise before making a formal complaint. Most situations can be resolved in this way. For those that can’t be, a council officer will attend and assess the situation. If the busker is deemed to be at fault and the issue persists then the busker can ultimately face enforcement action but this will only ever be as a last resort. You can follow this link to see an online copy of the guidance document aimed at businesses: York Busking Guidance businesses – final

By drawing up busking guidance alongside the Musician’s Union, Equity, the Keep Streets Live Campaign, local buskers and businesses, York Council have pioneered a radically different, collaborative approach to the oversight of street culture, setting a high standard for cultural policy that other towns and cities in the UK and beyond would do well to follow.

99 Comments on "York welcomes buskers with new guidance designed to promote harmony on the streets"

Congratulations on recent ‘changes’ in York. I’m glad that the Council have reversed their ‘permit’ style policy antics with regards busking in the town, that ‘interested’ parties have been satisfied ( ‘anxieties’ allayed ) & that some kind of ‘spot’ sharing solution has been found for Buskers ( your 2hr ‘pitch’ rotation bears a semblance to the successful code in operation in Stratford upon Avon ).

Ironically problems are ‘possibly’ underfoot with regards the possible use of ‘new’ Anti Social Police Bill in other areas of the country, I speak here of ( not Oxford ) but the proposed use of ‘control’ orders such as PSPO’s to police Birmingham city-centre.

The city ‘Environmental’ Health Officer Simon Cooper is pushing for their use due to supposed ‘complaints’! ( connected to 2 out of dozens of Street Performers who regularly play in the city, from what I gather ). I was warned of this last Xmas by city-centre Police, it seems now official ‘touting’ for ‘consultations’ ( with shops, retailors that is ) have begun.

Of course ‘new’ moves by Officialdom regards busking in Birmingham may demand ‘fresh’ thinking ( & activism ) by Street Performers themselves in the city. Given my Street Performing experience, the point I empasise here, concerning other places like my home town Birmingham, is its important to remember, there are many ways to skin a cat.

Social problems differ from place to place & the best solutions are town ‘specific’. Please Buskers don’t be decieved on this issue, the ‘dominant’ busking culture now found in places like Jonny Walkers Liverpool is a ‘perspective’ i.e. one of many ways of doing things.

Don’t be fooled because like the codes, & schemes found all around the country, they have their advantages & disadvantages, depending on ‘where you’re coming from’ & what instrument you play etc. As I see it, for example, the Liverpool environment most certainly favours ‘circle-acts’ & Pop Acts ( incl; ‘amplified’ SingerSongwriters/’Covers’ Singers ) over the ‘romantic’ guitarist or ‘lone’ Gypsy.

This is particularly true on the High Street where even if you were to get there first, others would soon arrive, & once set-up, drown you out!. York similarly is not a code that would necessarily work in a city like Birmingham, where the cityscape/’townplanning’ is different & there are futher social ‘considerations’ to take into account.

The tragedy in cities like Birmingham where you can currently avoid such difficulties by ‘booking’ a spot on the High Street, is that the problem has now been exasperated by ‘Street Preachers’.

These kind of ‘Christian’ folk are people who think nothing of turning up & standing right next to you & ‘sermonising’ with a loud haler ( or PA system in the case of Moslem Preacher Activists ).

One thing is certain though ( far more than the existence of God! )
& that is forget your PSPO’s, because no manner of ‘artificial’ public space control in a city-centre will solve this particular problem. Neither will the current Jonny Walker Streetslive approach, which to me are a series of ‘ Church establishment’ type community ‘platitudes’, which appears to ignore this kind of issue altogether.

At the end of the day, it will be good old-fashioned human communication ( & ‘negotiation’ ) involving ‘all’ parties, & including a lot of ‘religous’ goodwill ( they’re tolerated well enough! ), that will be the truly successful ( ‘peaceful’ ) harbinger of Culture, Politics & The Public Space in a place like Birmingham.

It is a gross ‘civil’ wrong when individual Council ‘authority’ figures are allowed the rather ‘arbitary’ Power ( based on the ‘feedback’ of ‘a few’ shopkeepers/retailers ) to draw a ‘circle’ (ring) in what is ‘public space’ & then be able to say any ‘action’ ( such as singing a song ), that crosses that line ( that steps over ‘my’ constructed boundary ) I can now define as criminal ‘anti-social’ behaviour.

What we end up with is not ‘civil justice’ but the ‘public abuse’ of a whole creative ‘section’ of the city-centre ‘working’ community. Plus we get the violent dismisal ( believe me this is a kind of ‘psychic’ state violence ), an ‘aggresive’ sweeping aside, of the ‘liberal’ democratic solutions that already exist, & importantly ( to a large extent ) work! ( morally/ ’emotionally’ as much as rational-legally ).

I truly grieve the ‘potential’ loss of the kind of ‘organic’ ( eclectic! ) busking state of affairs/solutions currently at play in Birmingham.
I love the ”mixed solution found in this city where on the one hand you can you can ‘book’ a spot ( protection ) or on the other you can simply turn up in other parts of the city-centre and ‘spontaneously’ perform.

PSPO solutions are basically town-planning mis-applied & security gone mad; a post-enlightenment, social hygenists nightmare. The Streetslive Liverpool ‘come as you are’, just set up 30 or so metres from each other & everythings fine street philosophy, I find in many ways just as destructive.

Does everywhere have to be the ‘Edinburgh Mile’ at August festival time?. Can’t we have a little bit of ‘chill out’, a touch of gypsy ‘romance’ on our High Streets from time to time? Ok please excuse my ‘romantic’ reveries ( delusions! ), culturally it may not work in Liverpool ( the ‘creative’ space not to be found ) but believe me it can ( & does ) in Birmingham!.

Of course the great irony here is the York Scheme ( with its 2hr spots & emphasis on sharing busking spaces ) though touted by Jonny Walker (Streetslive ), was in fact a ‘working’ set-up he was against in principle but only now, after the many meetings that have taken place appears to support it. In fact you’d think that this common-sense ‘civil’ solution to busking problems in York, was actually his ‘own’ ( Streetslives ) invention given the publicity you witness on this webpage ( above ).

The further truth is that its actually ‘derivative’ of the ‘working’ code currently found in Stratford upon Avon ( the ‘highest’ visited Tourist town ‘outside’ London! ). This highly successful busking scheme, whch has ‘evolved’ since, was the ‘brainchild’ of of ‘Marian Morgan’ local Folk Musician & worked out in consultation with local ( & ‘regular’ ) Buskers plus other ‘interested’ parties who wished to take part including the Music Union with which she had ‘strong’ connections & was a representative.

One thing I must say though in ‘connection’ with Marion Morgan & the busking scheme at Stratford upon Avon, is lucky that her ‘set-up’ was relatively ‘benign’ because her actual ‘management’ style was pretty ‘autocratic’ ( Town Hosts on yer case 24/7 & way too ‘oversurveilling’ at times esp. during the ‘early’ stages! ) so if things i.e. busking ‘arrangments’, had have been not so good or more ‘pear-shaped’ ( rather than ‘fortunately’ good with regards Street Performing ) this town instead would have be a pretty ‘awful’ place to ‘busk’ in.

A Good scheme then but ‘autocratically’ run ( Nb. things have ‘evolved’ & are different, even better today ) but then what do you expect from a classic ‘town’ insider? – she ( Marion Morgan ) works for the Shakespeare Centre now, which like most ‘Arts’ institutions is I find rather snootily, not a ‘Busking’ friendly organisation ( & of course what do you expect from a ‘lapsed’ Roman Catholic? – I think from ‘conversations’ thats what was her background religion! ).

No, like Council Tax Office workers, Dole-office workers, Social Workers, Teachers, Town Security & the like, BID staff regardless of the ‘title’ eg Arts Marketing Officer etc they’re all ‘front-line’ workers & as such a kind of ‘working class Police’. Thats why when I see Public Service Unions out there on the streets protesting outside the Council House about job & pay cuts etc, as a long-suffering ‘victim’ of this sector of society I can never quite bring myself to fully support them.

As for the Unions themselves eg The MU, my experience of dealing with them is largely ‘negative’ ( they’re simply not ‘radical’ enough, not ‘aggresive’ enough in your support! ), the relationship between the likes of myself & them essentially a ‘false’ one & unproductive one. A core insight I got when I ‘was’ a member a few years back & called a MU rep in to help deal with a personal busking issue i.e. a busking ‘ban’ from the town, was how ‘cosy’ the relationships can be/in ‘reality’ are between m/c union official & management depts.

In Stratford upon Avon back then ( 2/3 years ago ) they all appeared to know each other it was like one of those ‘interlocking networks of directorship’ you studied & read about in yer A-Level Sociology class ( classic Marxist Theory! ) back in the day. Marion Morgan herself had a ‘duel’ identity as BID Stratforward Senior Staff & Musician/Local Union Rep.

A window on ( & ‘micro-cosm of) the wider world & class economy/society in many ways methinks. Afterall are we not all of us at the end of the day ( knob-jockeys ) i.e. ruled by a self-pertuating ‘narcistisstic’ in-group of highly willed ‘bossy-boots’ & moneygrabbers?( or naked power-grabbers in the public service world ?)

After studying ( dipping into & reminding myself of! ) a little ‘classical’ political philosophy ( & ethics ) recently I reached the conclusion that Plato is not the answer. However he does have ‘something’ important to say!.

You can’t ‘artificially’ i.e. through an ‘elite’ education system create an a just good society ( or should I say its ‘ideal’ leadership ). Democracy with all its ‘messiness’ ( i.e. imperfections ) is I believe the best polical/social solution.

The problem is though, & due to this inherant ‘messiness’ its increasingly evident that its the ‘wrong’ people with the worst possible motives who all too often get through the ‘ranks’! & causing much ‘irrational’ ( & unecessary! ) damage & harm along the way.

So what can we do to ‘improve’ ( & more ensure better ) ‘management’ at the top? Firstly is to realise that in the ‘future’ ( a radically more ‘technologically’ advanced age ) it is quite possible to have developed ( or ‘evolved’ ) an ‘economically’ scarce ‘free’ society thus eradicating the need for todays type of ‘hierachical’ relationships ( i.e. a class based system ). In this sense, yes, a Communism of a sorts is inevitable in time to come. That plus a highly, highly ‘advanced’ Technocratic administrative & ‘productive’ / distributive centre!.

In the meantime ‘we’ ( us people, current ‘power’ institutions ) need to healthily ( ‘rationally’/emotionally ) encourage from ‘all’ walks of society the appearance of not only ‘moral’ & intelligent human beings but ‘wilful’ ones, who are willing to chase, struggle for & take up the mantles of power.

We need to become in a way more ‘Napoleonic’ – post-French Republican ( which is ‘ironic’ given todays ‘neo-liberal’ enlightenment civic tendencies! ) & insist on ever more greater, truer, ‘meritocracy’ ( with a key emphasis on ‘motivational’ classes for the masses! ).

Is there indeed any natural ‘benefit’ ( advantage ) in being last in an animal ( human! ) ‘pecking order’ ?

Well in the future technologically advanced ‘scarce-free’ economic society, it may turn out to be the case that recieving a ‘small’ slice of a bigger & increasingly better pie, may not in the end be such a bad thing?

( One condition ( ‘reality’ ) does spring to mind here of course, that based on ‘we’ as a ‘species’ actually succeeding in remaining ‘alive’ to attain that end i.e ‘ human-beings ‘ surviving & ‘winning’ through the many ‘inevitable’ obtacles & dangers getting in the way of such a ‘green’, materially/organically ‘rich’ & pleasant future! )

‘Irrational belief’ can lead to the ‘extinction’ of some of the worlds most ‘loved’ creatures; The plight of th African Elephant, Black Rhino spring to mind here, that & the ‘hugely’ profitable market in ‘ancient’ Chinese Medicine!.

Q. Why on earth did’nt Jesus when he was around take the time to also let us know that the ‘black death’ ( the plague! ) was in fact caused by the ‘brown’ rat unwittingly brought in on fishing boats & reach out even more to teach us that the earth indeed is not ‘flat’ but actually ’round’ ?.

Boy! he could have saved our ‘contemporary’ Scientists & Medical Researchers a lot of trouble, not only putting a stop to alot of human pain & suffering but also saving us a lot of time & money, enabling ‘entrepreneurs’ ( & adventurers ) to ‘open’ up vitally ‘new’ important ‘modern’ markets whilst successfully cirmumnavigating the globe.

If only the Holy Son ( Jesu ‘loving’ prophet ), could have done that, you know what I honestly believe that the plains of Africa would today be teeming with wildlife, herds of elephant, the ‘white’ rhino ( nevermind the ‘darker’ version ) abundant!.

Of course I don’t want here to ‘underestimate’ the power of the mind ( psychosomatics etc ) & the connection between ‘belief’ & wellness ( lots of impt & ‘interesting’ Research Psychology being conducted in this area at present ) but I don’t want to ‘over-egg’ the ‘causal’ prowess ( taking us into the realms of ‘witchcraft’ & magic!) of this no doubt important ‘natural’ human faculty either!.

The human ‘mind’ ( rational reason ) ‘certainly’ could be put to more good use in tackling the ‘concrete’ problems of ‘extreme’ poverty, famine & starvation that persists in seriously neglected & ‘under-developed’ regions like Africa.

Spreading hope through active & determinedly ‘modern’ global ‘economic’ progress rather than further ‘burdening’ these peoples ( ‘spirits’ & consciousness ) with what more ‘openly ‘( & honestly! ) used to be called ‘ The White Mans Burden ‘.

Read your history books & see clear accounts of what a very petit-mindedly cruel, sadistic & ‘racist’ third world Christian proselytizing project it could be as well ( & I can see in many different ‘guises’ still is! )!.

‘Irrational’ belief can cause ‘serious’ long-term damage but as many ‘anthropologists’ will tell you: tribal rituals, magic & witchcraft can have its ‘charms’, an expressive human ‘vitality’ that in many ways is just as important to protect & retain.

Its useful to be reminded that such ‘colourful’ cultural spectacle can easily be ‘wiped out’ altogther, artifically ‘homogenised’ & smothered, if left in the ‘sole’ hands of commerce & the Tourist Industry!.

A Guide To Busking In York ( a 20-page booklet complete with ‘artwork’ ) Reads like a tomb of ‘busking’ commandments & I’ve never before had the ‘misfortune’ to come across such ‘busking’ platitiudes. eg. ” Buskers are recommended to take breaks between blah!, blah!, blah! ” Yuuuk! how patronising!.

What do you do, pick up one of these guides from the local CAB Office, cos’ thats what it comes across like some anodine, consumer watchdog, advice leaflet.

One question though, a very pertinent one, to which I try to provide an ‘honest’ answer, Q. Have ‘Jesus Freaks’ taken over busking? A. No, these dudes at Streetslive ( Jonny Walker et al ) are for more ‘superior’, they don’t eat fish!.

As ‘an individual’ struggling to be an ‘authentic’ Busker ( call me an English Street Gypsy if you like! ) I don’t want to part of an ‘official’ civic, city ‘consumer’, shopping mall cuture, no, I seek the ‘right’ to a separate ‘legitmate’ ( ‘folk’ rooted! ) plural existence, with its own ‘specific’ important & ‘artistic’ function & for that to be ‘recognised’ as such!

E.g. Yes a busking code but one ‘subtley’ placed in the ‘background, perhaps ‘represented’ on the back of the Council/BID database, website or computer not ‘hyped’ up front. on some plastic laminated, mulit-paged leaflet or ‘illustrated’ boolet including presidential type handshakes with the Lord Mayor or Council Leader.

Then its a matter of relying upon the most powerful form of cultural ‘transmission’ on the streets i.e. ‘ word of mouth ‘!.

Yes I’d like to attain certain reasonable ‘human’ standards in what I do, & I’d like that to be appreciated but I’ve certainly no desire to be ‘worshipped’ ( nor for that matter ‘worship’ ). Thats why I’m a tad critical of Jonny , your Fathers ( Rev John H Walkers ) calls to see ‘worship on the streets’ ( See Streetlive.org ‘The People’ banner’ column ” I’d like to see worship on our streets ” .).

The truth is nobody goes to Church on Sundays anymore in this country ( nothing but a ‘sleek’ minority! ) & whilst ‘ preaching’ in the ‘fresh’ air may have its benefits I don’t think the ‘converted’ are about to leave their ‘comfortable’ afternoon pews ( not ‘en-masse’ anyways! ). More reasonably the many Churches standing ’empty’ nowadays are what in ‘reality’ could do with a bit of push & encouragement. No when you think about it ‘worship’ on the streets does’nt make that much sense at all (in fact ‘ I smell a rat! ).

So again I don’t want be ‘worshipped’ or anything esp. as a Busker ha! ha! ha!, but through ‘Busking’ ( good Street Performing! ) perhaps & if done well, just to gain a little bit more maybe ‘earned’/self respect ; no need for adoration , just a bit more perhaps self/well-regard!. In fact, I believe in the long term that worshipping supernatural Gods, people as Gods, or indeed people as representatives of Gods is unhealthy for man & society.

Basic human decency is all thats required for future humanity, that & respect for the most wonderful of the ‘creative’ processes that is life!. These ‘reasonable’ ( human ‘moral’ ) qualities don’t go un-noticed when they do ‘crop’ up & if/or when they do they possess their own humanly ‘intrinsic’ rewards.

In relation to my ‘statement’ the paragraph above, a tentative ‘apologe’ to you Mr Walker, afterall you could in all honesty be just a kind, caring, loving, ‘well-meaning’ parent merely trying to give ‘paternal’ moral support to an out of work & ‘difficult’ son!.

And in further relation to the ‘next’ paragraph above I’d like to re-state that it would be a real joy to see the appearance of a ‘truly’ plural Liberal Democratic Government ( that plus some ‘decent’ Referees! )

My last experience with Unions prior to my ‘brief’ membership of the Music Union ( MU ) as a Busker was whilst working as ‘ a temp with the Post Office10yrs back ( sorry! 20 years back in during the 1990’s! ).

The experience was typical of the then ‘ Secondary Labour Market with ‘Temps’ ( ‘Temporary’ Agency Staff ) being treated appallingly ( with acutal contempt! ) by Union Members. I distinctly recall that Xmas being ‘unceremoniosly’ told to get out of the staff ‘rest’ room ( tearoom! ) because ‘Agency’ were no longer allowed in there, and that was by a ‘ Shop Steward ‘, at the bequest of colleagues ( staff, PO workers! ). Yes a ‘class’ apartheid system supported by Unions at Birminghams central Post-Officee depot!.

My Father was a ‘Convenor’ for many years with the AUEW ( Amalgamated Union Of Engineering Workers ). Boy!, he had enough stories to tell, to give me enough ‘inside’ knowledge & insight into Unions & their practices to last me a lifetime!.

I understand the MU have carried a Streetslive ( Jonny Walker ) motion to adopt both the Liverpool & York busking schemes as ‘models’ for their national busking policy.

Well I say they’re not ‘models’ for the places I busk in both Birmingham & elsewhere. In fact they’d be a busking disaster in some of the towns I perform in, making decent Street Performing much more difficult for the likes of me ( & a few others ).

*
As a Busker I’d welcome the general support of the MU but for them to embrace so called busking ‘models” such as these, well thats plain crazy & for those truly in the know blinkered, naieve & all in all a stupid bit of ‘national’ policy making.

They need to realise that busking schemes in certain places & locations to be ‘workable’ & fair may need to be fundamentally different to the ones found in York & Liverpool!. I’m not about to join the MU nor become a member but at some stage someones got to ‘face them’ & tell them & if ( or when ) I get the opportunity I will do just that!.

You see taking into account the ‘reality’ ‘organising’ ‘principles’ of eg. ‘ideal’ spots, noise nuisance,standards & importantly ‘place’ ( not just ‘busking’ freedoms ) there are in ‘truth’ many ‘creative’ & imaginative ways to ‘shape’ the streets ( plus not all of them in line with your ‘vision’! & in fact in ‘practice’ some ‘working’ ‘relatively’ much better!)

See how the busking ‘code’ in Stratford upon Avon & its ‘framework’ of ‘formal’ busking spots, ‘shared’ every 2hrs, contrary to what is rapidly becoming ‘conventional’ buskers wisdom in certain parts of the country eg. Liverpool, York, actually works to the ‘advantage’ of Street Performers in this a usually very ‘busy’ tourist town i.e. ‘Shakespeare Land’ the most visited location in the country outside London!.

Ironically so, i.e. in Stratford upon Avon there are acceptible ‘deviations’ from the norm eg. a blind eye is given to non-amplified ‘acoustic’ players who reguarly set-up ‘off-piste’ ( i.e. outside ) the established busking scheme!.

You know in all truth I’d like for their to very much remain a kind of ‘social’ wilderness & for busking as a more ‘natural’ & fittingly romantic ‘subterranean’ culture to be located there ( & ‘respected’ as such, in the light of public ‘grace’! ). Not as visionary writer, Novelist George Orwell might have feared i.e. us Street Performers subsumed ‘ Inside The Belly of the Whale ‘, in this ‘context’ meaning eg. corporate ‘mass’ culture & neo-liberalism, ‘philistine’ local councils, a ‘growing’ & damagingly interfering civil ‘police’ state, property developers ( estate agents & landlords ) plus Busking Associations ( ‘activists’ ) i.e. the church, & yes the Unions!.

Yes we do have ‘common’ ground on this issue, in the ‘context’ of York ‘the 2hr rule’ ( recommendation! ) is I would argue ( support as ) good guidance. Of course nothing has to be fixed in stone eg. in Stratford upon Avon there are ‘spots’ eg Bancroft Gardens where you cd play over the ‘time-limit’ & acceptably so ( i.e. without causing ‘undue’ harm or over-staying your welcome & consequently generating complaint! ).

The ‘moral’ principle here is just as simple i.e. to be ‘honest’ about your ‘playing time’s & graciously ( generously yourself! ) hand over the spot as & when someone else ( another Busker/Performer ) turns up & requests them!.

The other key ‘reality’ principle is to recognise that there maybe good ‘structural’ reasons for there being ‘variations’ in terms of the ‘open’ access to playing spaces from place to place, town to town

Eg. if you scrutinise what I’ve pointed out about ( See Comments above ) the situation in Stratford upon Avon ( taking into account its peculiarities! ) I emphase how the towns ‘architecture’ ( built environment! ) in itself suggests having ‘formal’ fixed busking spots in the town & importantly to the ‘advantage’ ( not detriment ) of people such as ourselves!

I also state that the principle of ‘inclusiveness’ is one which I agree on ( of course I would do, afterall I myself as a man of ‘duel heritage’ am by definition a ‘minority’ ! ). So no I don’t want Buskers ( even what I would regard as ‘Rogue’ ones ) being ‘seriously’ criminalised or anything like that in this context.

As a ‘liberal’ on this issue I much prefer rational discussion, finding ‘common’ understanding & using ‘reason’ ( plus imagination ) as the ‘crystal’ staircase to the kind of ‘true’ justice we as Street Performers ( Buskers ) are looking for.

However if certain individuals don’t manage to get ‘outside’ themselves on this issue, arrogantly ignore problems & carry on causing ‘unnecessary’ ( unacceptable ) problems on the streets ( including hypocritically ‘unfairly’ coercing & bullying others themselves ) then I might agree that in their particular case state ‘sanction’ might prove to be the only solution left! ( * Personally I hope it does’nt come to this, & of course no to Scapegoats & scapegoating! )

Bytheway, without sounding too patronising ‘well-done on much of the ‘constructive’ contribution you’ve made towards busking in certain areas of the country.

I don’t know York as a Busker that well, but what you ( & importantly others! ) have achieved up there, esp. so given some of the prior, not too healthy conditions & ‘critical’ attitudes with regards buskers & buskig, I ‘morally’ support. Yes, I like very much what you’ve done. Very impressive!.

In the wider context I state & to some extent ironically that ‘Inclusiveness’ as an important issue of social justice ( & yes paramount in the minds of many esp in terms of race, gender, class ) is one thing however speaking as ‘an individual human-being’, a person with I guess a Bohemian temperament ( or tendencies! ) & as a possible future ‘serious’ Artist, its choice & the right to be myself, have an ‘authentic’ identity ie. free access to by own very personhood, that is on the highest agenda for me!

And this is why I personally will go to great lengths to protect myself from ‘pettiness’ in other people, including Buskers & their ‘smear’ campaigns eg. falsely, ‘maliciously’, claiming I myself am a bully etc. I tell you my ‘self-integrity’ as an Artist ( Public Musician ) is paramount & its that what I intend to ultimately ‘define’ me!.

Now theres an old adage that states, ” you win when you refuse to fight petty people ”. Now I agree that this kind of folk ‘wisdom’ rings generally true in the ‘ordinary ‘ social’ world where you can find yourself beset by ‘ Knockers ‘ ie. those who would spitefully belittle you, like to see you slip or suffer misfortune, see you get into a real tight spot etc. Here its true, the wisest response can be to simply ignore or simply ‘refuse to fight! this kind of ‘nasty’ criticism.

However, when this form of ‘Belittler’ gains entre into ‘serious’ quarters & sometimes disturbingly the actual ‘corridors of power’ then more drastic action may need to be taken. Their ‘shadowy’ prescence can’t simply be ignored, the possible effects much to dangerous.

Of course no politician worth their salt would admit this in public but what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ in politics ( all the ‘intrigue’! ), well that amounts to a whole interesting & fascinating narrative in itself.

Now you Jonny speak of sharing ‘common ground’ in the desire not to see ‘minstrels’ et al not excluded from public spaces. I can concur with that reasonable wish.

However I say ( hypocritically ) that you don’t seem to have similar strong feelings when it comes to condemning fellow Buskers ( eg. the likes of your ‘friend’ from Birmingham ) for their pretty evil impulse to ‘slur’ & implore ‘authorities’ eg police, wardens to ‘ostracise’ the likes of me.

And who by mischievously labelling me Bully ( when they themselves are the ones ‘on-the-spot’ accused of ‘noise’ nuisance, infringing agreed busking codes etc ) are basically resorting to what is a common ‘racist’ discourse of primitivising & de-civilising the likes of me as, ‘the other’ i.e. just another ‘aggressive’ black man. Thus ‘pick on him! ‘. ( Yeah, a prime example of spiteful, white ‘displaced’ aggression & induced scapegoating, by a so called ‘fellow’ Busker! )

All this ‘forgetting’ of course the real ( more ‘complex’ ) truth that in actual fact I’m of ‘duel’ heratage ( with a white father! ) & not in any instance a violent or aggressive black ‘sterotype’ ( tho’ if I was, & in the ‘circumstances’, acutally ‘right-hooked’ the guy could be forgiven for being/doing so!. ).

No Jonny, here we don’t share any common ground, & in this sense I’m 100% against you & your tribal supporters!.

You see the truth is, as illustrated in the teachings of all the ancient ‘spiritual’ traditions, including ‘Ancient Christian Spiritual life’, to be found in recognising the importance of ‘not’ holding onto ( i.e. deferring, displacing ) emotional ‘trauma’ eg. in my case experiences of ‘racism’ etc but rather confronting it & in the process personally ‘transcending’ it & then letting it go.

For sure I’m not one with a preference for taking the ‘political’ high-ground i.e. & seeking to win friendship of the petty. No I choose for me what is the ‘healthy’ way forward, the spiritual way!. And ultimately thats what I’m interested in, i.e. ‘holistic’ human health ( & for all! ) not merely ‘conventional’ politics!.

Len Mcluskey ( Post War Political ‘Socialist’ History & Union Leadership At Its Best ! )

I am ‘critical’ of the ‘direction’ that ‘some’ Trade Unions have gone in recent years esp. under the ‘auspices’ of New Labour ( i.e. ‘lost’ contact with its ‘natural’ constituency eg. the w/c electorate ). Plus I am suspicous of what I regard as essentially M/C Unions ( in ‘spirit’ & practice ! ) eg. The Farmers Union & the MU ( Music Union ) etc ( See above ).

Congratulations to Jeremy for making Post War political ( ‘socialist’ ) history yesterday & winning the argument at NEC level that he be allowed to contest the up & coming leadership challenge from Merseyside ( Wallasey ) Labour MP Angela Eagle, himself as ‘incumbant’ Leader currently with ‘overwhelming’ party membership backing . Justice ( ‘moral’ ) has been done ! .

It seems the Music Union ( MU ) are backing Owen Jones ( over Corbyn ! ) in the up & coming Labour Leadership contest, funnily enough so are the Tories. Yes, its enough to cause discord & disharmony amongst many ( if not most ! ) members of the wider ‘authentic’ music community no doubt ! .

No, not to worry nor fret cos’ they’re back to the ‘firing’ line, & yes to defend against it, ( the vangard to wider ‘community’ support ) Birminghams best thats is, UB40 !. Yes, rejoice the timely ‘return’ of that w/c 80’s ‘white’ ( well predominantly so ! ) reggae band of the ‘inner’ city, of the Margaret Thatcher era, have come out in force ( or should I say for ‘months’ now mightily continue, in full ‘public’/PR support ) of Jeremy Corbyn, his policy & party ( & no this is not a ‘pop’ promotional ! ).

The band have been going ( continuing ! ) ‘re-formed’ for a few years now & are already touring on the ‘gig’ circuit successfully, everyone minus ‘front’ singer Ali Campbell that is who left the band a few years ago to pursue a ‘solo’ career. Not successful ‘he’ has currently attempted to form his ‘own’ band using the UB40 name himself, the 2 parties are now in court over this issue ( & there ain’t no telling who’s gonna win,- ra ta ta ta! ) .

Good news tho’ about the current Corbyn backing line up, like myself they’re of that ‘generation’ with the by todays standards highly rare if not valuable ‘perspective’ to really know what has happened politically ( yes ‘practically’ informed ) over the last 30 odd years what with the ‘onset’ of Tony Blair & New Labour ( not incidently a complete disaster for much of the w/c, now driven underground, or to the ‘fringes’ ! ).

Gosh I can remember the very instance ( social ‘time’ phase ) when ‘property’ prices first began to ‘shoot’ up during the late 80’s, early 90’s eg. the era ‘post’ Thatchers selling off of Council Houses & Environment Secretary Michael Heseltines crack down on the so called ‘squatting’ crisis,& the beginnings of the creation of a ‘buy to let’ market for ‘new’ social ‘Landlords’ what with the introduction of ‘new’ tenants agreements/short-term contracts etc ( yes the ‘enclosures’ Acts all over again, a form of ‘class’ enclosure for the late 20th Century ! ).

I remember this period well, how can I forget the heated ‘arguments’ ( no not friendly ! ) I had back then with my then ‘girlfriend’ from St Helens over why she was prepared to pay £70/£80 for a ‘shoddy’ one-bed flat, that only a few months back was only £35/£40 per week. She was typical of the ‘new’ generation of up & coming 1990’s ‘students’/post-grads from w/c backgrounds back then, hungry & ‘ambitious’ to join the London ‘loads-a-money elites yet still desiring ( & managing somehow ) to ‘maintain’ their – her! – w/c credentials by voting Labour.

Yes wanting her cake & ‘eating’ it ( she simply ‘shrugged’ of the ‘high’ rents with the again typical ‘retort’ well thats how it is kind of attitude, the ‘market’ that is ! ) this Grammar school lass, from a single mother home, with ‘red-brick’ University hon’s degree in Languages eg. French & Italian, herself a teacher for a few years on graduation – her first job! .

Plus then an International Marketing Rep for Pilkingtons Aerospace, working in an ‘arms’ industry environment where the ‘heads’ of Swiss/German companies back then were ex Waffen SS ( & believe you me I cd be in big trouble for saying this, this was – perhaps still is – a very dangerous & ‘dodgy’ business area governed by a code of the ‘strictest’ secrecy & toughest etiquette, so don’t blurt this kinda stuff around, & yes ‘ hush hush ! ‘. ) .

Certainly no Saint but as an ‘intelligent’ ( & at times very ‘insightful’ human being ) he bequeaths us a literary ‘canon’ ( well some of his best work, or ‘polemic’ can be classed as journalistic ‘literature’ that is ! ) that certainly gives a man, woman pause to if not totally ‘stop’, think !

( Nb. this is a ‘busy’ world, at times ‘frenetic’ existence, sometimes all we can do is ‘trust’, rely on our ‘news’ from the mainstream media, often it can turn out a big mistake. We need thoughtful, critical, ‘outside’ thinkers such as this, if only to garner a more ‘accurate’, truthful, human perspective & to then make up our minds! ) .

Just been ‘watching’ a YouTube video of ‘Michael Walker’ busking in Harrogate. Nice first song, surprisingly nice voice, yes a good heart too, but in all truth ( & ok ‘sadly’ ) a ‘false’ sentiment. No ‘I’ say, live now, Carpe Diem, without ‘dreams’, nor ambition cos apposite to the ‘message’ of the tune, there is ‘no time’ !.

Just finishing a Sunday ‘early’ evening busk in Birmingham approx 7.30pm last weeh when I was approched ( initally kinda ‘rudely’ eg. unwanted ‘leaflets’ dropped in my guitar case ) by a now ‘regular’ gp of Christians ( from Walsall ) who ‘preach’, publicly market their ‘faith’ & do some ‘soup’/food ‘street’ kitchen work in the for the ‘growing’ no of ‘night-time’ homeless ( ‘roughsleepers’ ! ) in the city-centre.

Inevitably I guess I was’nt going to be let ‘free’ easily that night, when the ‘leader’ of the gp insisted on talking to me about ‘religion’, the saving word of the Bible, ‘personal’ illustrations of how he was saved eg. from divorce, bankruptcy, other ‘common’ pain & suffering etc !. Then the ‘conversation’ ( again predictably ) turned to my belief’s, ”you’re’ an atheist” he ‘interjected without my even having opened my mouth, then going on to talk about his ‘belief’ in The Creator.

I patiently listened & then replied ” its very arrogant to insist that you know for certain about the ultimate ‘origins’ of the earth, mankind etc, that there have been 1000’s of ‘world’ religions, they can’t all be right & the truth is nobody knows !. He brought his notion of The Creator back into the ‘dialogue’ again, when I again retorted.

I ‘replied’ ” Why do you talk of a Creator ?, For all we know the origin of ‘life’ may turn out to be the outcome of a ‘process’, involving many casual factors, & ‘natural’ ones at that too. A ‘mysterious’ natural life process may underly ‘sense’ experience & metaphysical reality as we understand or know it !. I went on to say, ee may turn out to be ultimately the ‘result’ of not a Divine force as such but a powerful, wondrous even, yet ‘unknown’ natural life process. I ‘don’t know of course for certain but the probable ‘evidence’ of my ‘senses’, my experience on this matter, based on my personal ‘journey’ thru life ( ok. it has’nt yet truly begun ! ) is that it is most probable that ‘nature’ is the key i.e. to mystery, to life, to our universe ‘not’ God !.

Yorkshire is a ‘beautiful’ county, it has a stark ‘natural’ beauty, authentic ‘folk’ culture, its very own ‘expressive’ poetry, & from its tender mileu emerges some pretty ‘strident’ characters incl most of the ‘country’s top athletes. Its from this sort of ‘area’ that along with say London, England may even begin to find a ‘high’ culture again, a ‘creative’ attitude ‘lost’ in these corporate USA ‘mass’ consumer infl./ Northern European ‘neo-liberal’ Anglo Saxon economic times.

An ‘internationalist’ in spirit, European in the ‘cultural’ sense, lover of the Meditterranean, I hope Englands ‘northern’ county can manage to find ( or keep! ) a warm or indeed ‘hot’ southern connection. Thinking culturally again, & as a Street Performer ( & potential ‘travellor’ ) Madrid provides a fine example of how ‘folk’ music eg. Singer Songwriter stuff can mix with ‘indigenous’ ( actually national ‘transcendant’ forms today ! ) such as The Tango & Flamenco to form one of the great Cafe entertainment traditions such as The Cafe Cantate.

The German post Romantic Philospher Friedrich Nietzsche despite ‘common’ prejudices was not a Nazi or forerunner ‘Intellectual’ of the Nazi Party but ( a bit like Beethoven ! ) a ‘progressive’ Internationalist & believer in ‘world’ transcendant future reality. He was critical of ‘small-minded’ Germanness & spent most of his ‘short’ life ( he succumbed to ‘madness’ in middle age – a congenital ‘condition’ possibly brought on by ‘syphilis’ contracted as a youth ! ) wandering ‘beautiful’ Italy, & largely alone i.e. in relative isolation !.

For me his ‘vision’ of future transcendance ( perhaps with a touch more ‘social’ or community emphasis ) comes closest to persuading ( emoto/ rationally ) ‘convincing’ me of the ‘true’ nature of man & the ‘real’ ( most ‘natural’ ) way forward for mankind i.e. not religion ( unless you call this a religion, a ‘humanist’ one ) nor God but thru’ actions solely ‘motivated’, whilst of course in the highest cultivated ’emotional’ / spiritual state(s), by ‘natural’ Man himself.

On the ‘topic’ of ‘money’ rather than leaflets going into your guitar case when out busking, I’ve heard some pretty ‘platidinal’ pap expressed as ‘depth’ psychology on quite a few Buskers ‘Blog’ ( Diary ) sites recently.

Again personal ‘experience’ ( evidence ) suggests ‘Nietzsche’ was was right here, him ( thu’ his ‘writings’ ) shedding some canny philosophical’ ‘insight’ into the true nature of ‘human’ generosity. This ‘wisdom’ being very much in ‘contrary’ vein to much ‘common’ wisdom on the matter too incl. Christianity, & ‘Modern’ Social Psychology eg. The Psychology of the Crowd ( or Sunday Market – when one stops to buy, they all stop & buy i.e. shopping ‘herd’ mentality ! ).

No, for Nietzshe ( & I agree with his ‘perspective’ ) human generosity in the last instance & in its ‘deepest’ subconscious motive, is an expression of ‘power’ i.e. at its most natural ’emotional’ level it describes a ‘heightened’ state of individual ‘sovereignty’. And yes I’ve witnessed it many times in both Birmingham & Stratford upon Avon as the ‘coins’ drop one by one into my case, that look of ‘absolute’ dominion in the face of the giver!.

( * Bytheway I ‘don’t’ recommend you waste your time reading ‘one’ London Buskers Diary I perused the other day, where Busking ‘money’ is erroneously described as ‘tipping’. Tho’ I’d argue that as far as that other kind of ‘public’ drop goes eg. by some passing Evangelists, it is an ‘everyday’ city-centre ‘practice’ which cd be accurately labeled as ‘fly tipping. Well thats what I’ll be more than ‘tempted’ to call it in my ‘writings’ anyway !. )

( * In terms of ‘protecting’ the interests of w/c people from the ‘unfair’ imbalances in not a ‘free’ but rigged European market I don’t think either the Greens or Mayor ‘Khans’ Labour party ‘wing’ have the solutions. But there again neither does UKIP or to my mind any other ‘prominant’ party poltical organisation at present !.

The recent EU referendum was always based on an ‘over’ simplistic ‘dogmatic’ like decision of either in or out & failed disasterously to address the real ‘underlying’ issues or should I say ‘real’ economic & social ‘problems’ – these still remain ‘largely hidden & undiscussed ! ).

Just a few miscellanous ‘view’s & ‘opinions’ to put into ‘context’ some of my ‘comments’ on this streetslive.org website.

Firstly my views on Euthenasia ( See. Chester KSL Blog on the ‘topic’ of suicide etc ). I believe the state, nor religion has no ultimate place in dictating whether or not I take my ‘own’ life, for me its a matter of ‘free’ choice & regardless I will make it as I see fit ( Nb, tho’ my actual ‘suicide’ is highly unlikely, relatively ‘negligible’ etc See.fuller argument elsewhwere ).

In this ‘context’ quoting the legaility or illegality of ‘suicide’ for me is an absurdity, it simply does’nt make moral sense, & I say that as a ‘morally’ sensitive & fully feeling human being. As far as Euthanasia goes thats another issue, I wd’nt want to ‘inflict’ my mercy killing on others eg. ‘loved’ ones ( I don’t have many ! ) or otherwise but don’t ask or ‘beg’ for ‘parliamentary’ permission from Politicians.

I recognise the ‘risks’ with making ‘mercy’ killing legal ie. it cd be abused, but nevertheless I only fully recognise my own ‘sovereign’ right to die if I so choose, so ultimately if I was ‘terminally’ ill, in great pain & yet was ‘able’ to & willing to ( opted to ) commit suicide I wd do so without hesitiation nor ‘guilt’. ( what ‘politicians’ say, what priests or vicars say, wd have no ’emotional’ bearing on me whatsoever ).

In fact the ‘only’ influential voice on me wd be that of the ‘ethicists’ or ‘classic’ philosophers thats why in my case its only in ‘exceptional’ circumstances ( & not necessarily ‘painful’ illness say e.g paralysis from a ‘stroke’ ) that I wd opt to go thru’ with it, valuing ‘hardiness’, grit, finding some ‘positivity’ in the situation over imobiliy & that kind of inconveniant pain & suffering. Yes I have my ‘role’ models, no not kings nor saints but ordinary ‘elderly’ folk I’ve witnessed in care homes going thru that reality.

And when facing ‘death’ & possibly faced with the ‘priest’ at the bedside ( * Hitchens was right they won’t even leave you alone even at death ) I will refuse the ‘cross’, summoning up all my strength to break it into ‘wooden’ bits if I can, not out of disrespect for the ‘mythical’ Jesus but almost #’total contempt for the institutionalised church whether Roman Catholic or Church of England ( & thats despite the Catholic #Church & its ‘doctines’ & ‘superstitions’ possibly playing a part in my being ‘alive’ in the first place i.e. my ‘birth’ rather than periodic ‘termination’ or abortion ! ).

Ok I do recognise the ‘comedy’ in that ( Nb in perhaps quieter, more peaceful & I guess ‘humbler’ moments when I do give some thanks for this human ‘absurdity’ ! ). As I do the current existence of Israel, responding to the question Q. Am I anti-semite ? A. with well heh no & more emphatically ( heh helllooo !, knock, knock anybody in there ?, why do you put such stupid questions ?, I’m a black man for ‘f..k’ sake, a persecuted ‘minority’ myself, in my ‘own’ country ! ). But as for being anti-zionist yes, but then thinking again & more correctly, yes but only in part !. Let me tell you why ?

Its possible to be actually Zionist & a ‘critic’ of the present Israel ( ‘mythical’, state police, authoritiarian, ‘coloinial’ set-up ) in the sense of ( & often ignored ‘wider’ meaning of the term of Identlty ) having ‘supported’ in the early stages, yes a ‘bi-national’ Arab, Jewish state, but one called ‘Palestine’. ( In this sense I share the ‘position’ of much touted public intellectual on this issue, a yg ‘Jewish’ Zionist himself, Noam Chomsky ).

As for ‘current’ political realities, well the treatment of Palestinians in all ‘regions’ eg. West Bank, Gaza, is atrocious, amounts to ‘tyranny’ & possibly should be treated as an ‘international’ crime gg. the ‘gaza’ wall, occupation of palestinian territory by jewish settlers etc. That said I don’t think we can ‘realistically’ return to ‘recent’ origins i.e. the pre-birth of the nation state of Israel & a re-occupation of land by Palestinians ( or at least it coming under their ‘poltical’ jurisdiction & authority ).

So I support the 2 state solution as backed by successive USA governments, well up until the ‘new’ Presidency of Donald Trump ie. there needs to be a self ‘autonomous’ Palestinian Homeland as a solution to Middle East crisis & decades of ‘conflict’, bloodshed & suffering.

As far as classic’ Zionist claims to territory go i.e. the religous/ historical ones, I agree with the late Christopher Hitchens on this & wd argue they’re largely cultural ‘pseudo’ nonsense, at the very least insubstantiated. However I state this whilst recognising along with Hitchens that many ‘nation’states have been built & ‘legitemated’ on equal ‘spurious’ grounds.

That issue settled but now going beyond this, I again turn to ‘inspiration’ from the modern german philospher ( See. ‘comment’ above ) eg. Friedrich Nietszche. Myself stating that the ‘nation’state in itself may be in the short ‘historical’ term a ‘reality’, & in many ways a good thing in terms of the ‘good’ some communtity cohesion can bring ( & I say that as largely an ‘outsider’ ) but in the long term not just for the human ‘good’ but out of the ‘human’ truth itself, if not must, is ‘bound’, to be ‘transcended,’ with regards ‘future’ civilisation. Man is a being that must overcome himself !.

PS. Day ‘trip’ out to another ‘beautiful’ region of the country, a ‘few’ miles out of Birmingham, cancelled this ‘weekend’ due to unforseen ‘personal’ cirmumstances, so I’m stuck at ‘home’ this Sat writing this sort of stuff !.

Got some ‘great’ new guitar music on the horizon too, not quite Stepan Rak aka ‘Romanzaz’, ‘Terra Australias’ but certainly a related sound & incl. the ‘licks’. Plus the right ‘people’ to ‘travel’ & work with too, yeah for ‘real’ !.

With ‘Sharpshooter’ ready & at my side, taking a standard ‘classical’ guitar technique like the ‘tremolo’ tho’ playing it on a ‘novelty’ guitar i.e. shaped like a broom, & with some public so taken in by the spectacle, they actually mistsake you for a ‘real’ virtuoso, yeah ‘street’ desparado !.

A London Terror Attack On Westminster Bridge – Terror Hits The Headlines ( or ‘ A Theory Of Moral Sentiments ‘ by Adam Smith )

Terror has hit the ‘headlines’ again, this time its about the ‘mowing’ down by motor vehicle & attack & ‘stabbings’ of innocent ‘members’ of the public ( Nb. by ‘usual’ war standards ‘civilians’ protected under the Geneva Convention. Well you’ve seen all the world war II movies they do have ‘some’ basis in ‘reality’ ! ). The gruesome statistics reveal 2 dead & I ‘duty’ police officer killed by an individual attacker ( tho’ perhaps working with a ‘driving’ accomplice ) & defined as a ‘terrorist’ by much of the UK press.

I’ve been interested to check out all the Buskers responses ( esp. Londoners, mainly SouthBankers ) to this ‘deadly’ incident since it took place yesterday ( March 22 ) on Westminister Bridge which is closebye to the Thames ‘spots’ where most of them publicly ‘perform’.

Well meaning or not, real or false you get all the ‘usual’ platitudes here, all the kinds of ‘banal’ response which we’re so used to hearing on these kinds of occasion. In fact some of these ‘statements’ are so well rehearsed you’d think you were listening to the ‘everday’ sentiments of ‘career’ polticians not self defined Singer Songwriters or ‘pop’ lyric poets.

Take for instance Susana Silva the Portuguese Singer & Busker, just back from a short break in Portugal, apparantly successfully raising the ‘funds’ for a new van & driving lessons from her Dad so she can eventually leave the city & ‘travel’ around as a Street Performer. shes now talking about her ‘heart’ being in London.

Charlotte Campell recently banned from Facebook for ‘posting’ Ed Sheeran Covers now ‘fortunately’ ( for her & ‘her’ followers ! ) forgiven & re-instated talks about Londoners being ‘strong’ on this occasion. Despite the fact that she’s now busking in Waterloo Underground Station out of current ‘safety’ & security concerns & in turn despite The SouthBank being today being declared ( despite temporary closedown yesterday ) open & ready for ‘business’ & that incl’s busking.

As for regular ( well ‘fairly’ regular ! ) SouthBank Busker Emily Lee, she talks on twitter feed about telling those close to you that you ‘love’ them ( you know listening to her anyone wd think that 9/11 or perhaps a ‘nuclear’ holocaust was immanent ! ).

The one ‘comment’ that stands out was ‘another’ by Susana Silva again her on ‘Facebook’ page & this time expressing her apparant aghastness at the event incl. not ‘understanding’ herself how anyone cd carry out such an act. I don’t know where she’s been ( I know she spends alot of time hidden away in a ‘room’ in London somewhere doing ‘online’ concerts in the websphere ! ) but I put the question Q. Is she not aware that a ‘global’ jihaad is being waged at present ?, that a civil war is waging in Syria ?, that Iraq is a country under perpetual state of ‘interior’ violence & bloodshed ?. That this has been going on for ‘decades’ now, on the tip of Europe i.e. just the other side of Turkey, & that Christians eg. Women have been taken not just prisoner but as ‘sex’ slaves ?.

Which leads to the he ‘obvious’ answer to her question ( or clear ‘lack’ of understanding of this issue ! ) that this sort of attack is often driven by ‘ideology’, in this case ‘religous’ & indeed ( tho’ not exclusively’ ) Islamic. The guy ( or guys ) who carried out this attack maybe be unstable, have mental health problems, or god forbid be ‘Loners’ but generally speaking it will be their ‘beliefs’, ideology, world view ( whether encultured, ‘programmed’, brainwashed or otherwise ) that will be driving them to ‘act’ in this ‘destructive’ public manner.

See. Chester KSL ‘bottom page’ comment for ‘my’ take on the role of ideology in eg. Suicide Bombing. ( see also ‘commentators’ like Christopher Hitchens RIP for a take on this issue ). Here I explain that ‘suicide’ is not the appropriate word at all in describing this sort of behaviour ( tho’ one often used in characteristic ‘hackneyed’ fashion by the ‘mass’ media ) since in the ‘perpertrators’ mind ( i.e.the bomber ! ) they are not merely ‘killing’ themselves but taking part in a ‘heroic’ act that will lead them to Heaven or ‘metaphysical’ Paradise as the ultimate ‘reward’. Which in turn explains the behaviour of attackers like the Westminster Bridge one yesterday i.e. who in their ‘minds’ may not simply be inflicting ‘violence’ on innocent people but attempting to annihilate a ‘hated’ enemy.

Of course in ‘reality’ ( esp. the objective one ) this is an ideology open to question & which can be ‘morally’ dismantled & ultimately undermined,& yes viewed ‘rationally’ as wrong. But don’t be complacent here either, since having been ‘reading’ lately ( over the last year or so ! ) & reaching an understanding of ( the ‘core’ ideas of ) the classic economist Adam Smith ( in his less well known guise as ‘moral’ Philospher ), I inform you he also sheds some impt light on this very ‘human’ issue.

For example in his ‘ Theory Of Moral Sentiments ‘ ( his other ‘classic’ book being ‘The Wealth Of Nations ‘ which attempts to ‘theoretically’ explain Capitialism & the concept of ‘growth’ ! ) Smith talks of man in the ‘natural’ state being very much 2 kinds of ‘creature’ ( both ‘natural’ ) eg. 1. Man as a ‘social’ creature & 2. Man as a Predator.

In other words whilst man is very much capaple of ‘bonding’ i.e. ‘love’, ‘affection’ & all kinds of ‘demonstrative’ collaborative behaviour he/ she is also ultimately a ‘killer’, at least in the everday capable of ‘predation’, the bottom line an ‘exploiter’ of ‘others’ i.e. his or her fellow human beings, not just other ‘animals’ ( Nb. those ‘species’ less closely related on the ‘evolutionary’ chain ).

Want ‘proof’ of this, perhaps everyday ‘diary’ evidence. not just Marxist Theory/ Critique of ‘mans predation upon man’ co-existing with the natural tendency to ‘bond’ ? If so, then look no further than Singer/ Busker Emily Lees recent Interview with Jake Hamiliton from the ‘online’ Therapy Magazine ‘Hapiful’.com entitled Eg. ” Four Musicians Who Are Crushing The Stigma Of Mental Illness ”. Here she talks of Busking, Depression, Relationships & HIV, clearly illustrating via her own fairly ‘recent’ experiences that ‘human beings’ can both ‘bond’ & ‘kill’ each other simultaneously, they can indeed both ‘love’ & ‘destroy’ one another at the same time !.

Nb. Its not just Buskers ‘immediate’ public emotional response I question ( See above ) London ‘Buskers’ such as Emily Lee I argue are wrong too about the cause & ‘nature’ of the Westminster Bridge ‘attack’ in particular & recent ‘terror’ attacks in general.

On Emily’s Facebook acount one commentator states ” religion is the only premise that justifies acts such as this ”. She replies ” These beliefs are not written in religous texts, it is something man has evolved in his own interpretations & need for power & control. No one who is striving for a better world would resort to violence ” .

I disagree with both of them eg. Nazism ( for many close to a ‘religion’, a bit like ‘pop’ music is for many fans today – ok a ‘darker’ version of it ! ) both ‘glorified’ & ‘acted’ out ‘militarily’ gross ‘state’ violence on the grandest of scales.

In fact thru’ the films of Leni Riefensthal et al they were the first to use ‘propaganda’ that ‘aesthetised’ war e.g transforming ‘bombing’ etc into phantasmagoric effect, making war ‘beautiful’ rather like some of the YouTube videos of ‘suicide’ Bombers you see today posted abound on ‘social’ media.

I talk of ‘popular’ culture making comparative references ( See above ) to ‘pop’ fans etc not facetiously either, but in a ‘serious’ tone eg. I remember Popular Fashion Magazine Culture ‘popularising’ Heroin Chic in the late 80’s/ & throughout the 90’s, in effect & for cynical ‘consumer’ purposes, ‘glorifying’ such ‘self’ destrucive acts as ‘heroin’ use etc.

You know many a foolish ‘pop’ fan trying to emulate their ‘cool’ targets of worship have fallen foul of this kind of ‘process’ also, rather like the ‘junkie’ hangers on & followers of Brooklyn/ Harlem Jazz in the USA late 40’s & early 50’s. Many have eventually ‘fallen’ & died ( whilst causing much extraneous destruction & misery to ‘others’ on the way ! ).

Moving on & back to the point ( or ‘initial’ theme ) raised on Emily’s Facebook ‘fan’ page, you know ‘we’ as a ‘species’ have got to get beyond the notion that ‘religion’ in some way is an ‘intrinsic’ good. As the late Christopher Hitchens constantly reminded us, this ‘institution’ may indeed represent the ultimate ‘human’ invented Tyranny.

We must also recognise ( not bury our heads in the sand to the fact ) that ‘violence’ in all its forms eg. physical, psychological & ’emotional’ pervades the ‘every day’, both for ‘right’ & ‘wrong’ ( & moral ‘shades’ in between ! ). Knowing this, becoming aware of this, ‘owning’ up to this, is the ‘first’ step to being less complicit in at least the most ‘perfidious’ & irrational forms of ‘violence’ around us.

As I state elsewhere ( see. London ‘Liberty’ Blog ) these days ( yes ‘today’ ! ) & by drawing upon much ‘respected’, well documented research, there is valid ‘contemporary’ Theological/ Liturgical & philosophic ‘hermaneutic’ theory on how ‘violence’ can spring from ‘literal’ ( not ‘loose’ ) interpretations of ‘religious’ texts. Nevermind voted ‘Acts’ of democratic parliament ( See. Iraq War & USA 2002 Congressional Resolution backed by amongst ‘others’ Hilary Clinton ) and the rest.

Emily you state that that ” no one striving for a better world would resort to violence ”. Well how then do you explain the many ‘brave’ acts by ‘ordinary’ people ( nevermind the ‘great’ & good ! ) carried out through the whole of the 2nd World War by courageous ‘soldiers’, civilians, spies, politicians fighting ‘hard’ & most aggressively ( i.e. to the death ), to defeat Hitler & his like.

You know the ‘truth’ in this kind of circumstance, ‘historically’ you not only show the ‘will’ to kill but simply you as a ‘sane’, rational, ‘good’ man or woman have very little ‘choice’ not to ( human & ‘meaningful’ choice that is ! ) if you want to survive ‘free’ of such evil, such Tyranny ( See. Military Philospher Carl Von Clausewitz on how ‘war’ by definition can be seen as just that i.e. an ‘extension’ of poltics by other means ! ) .

” Some people may find it hard to read but if it helps one person on their journey then I know its worth it ”

Well I say it doe’snt neccessary help me, I’ve long had my ‘suspicians’ & recognised the ‘symptoms’ ( pretty ‘endemic’ ones culturally & at one time ‘healthwise’ too tho’ West London still has one of the ‘highest’ HIV rates in the UK ).

But anyway you ‘guys’ esp. yg ‘bucks’ out there heres some ‘tips’ on falling for & going out with a girl like Emily Lee.

Eg. Out for a meal in some plush restaurant somewhere, say Emilys ‘favorite e.g ‘The Blues Kitchen’ in Shoreditch ? in these days of ‘terror’ ? constantly looking under the table for the ‘planted’ denotator ? you handsome ‘heros’ you ?

Think I’m getting rather paranoid ? Well think again, esp. if out on a date with Emily Lee, it may turn out that you’re ‘dining’ with the ‘female’ equivalent of a ‘walking’ ( talking ) timebomb !.

So remember guys beware but no ‘trigger’ fingers here’, keep it cocked but at this stage no ‘lock n’ load’, yes thats right taking ample time to scour the vicinity first, making sure to keep the ‘safety’ catch well on, before of course making your next move. ” Desserts please Waiter ! ” )).

What ? The ‘solution’ to this kind of thing you say ‘marriage’ preceded by ‘courtship’ & a lg engagement period ?. ”No ! ”, not necessarily I say, truth is I don’t think ‘marriage’ is the best form ‘of’ reproductive system for all people ( incl children ), I for one acknowledge the quite ‘moral’ & practical ‘alternatives’.

As for ‘sex’ outside marriage I think thats fine ( indeed ‘healthy’ ) if conducted in the right way. For me thats in the form of a mature ‘ludic’ relationship i.e. where 2 ‘adults’ ( not 2 ‘self-destructive’ infantiles ) get together for ‘mutual’ fun & satisfaction & yes pleasure.

How do you attain this sort of relationship ? Well some learning & experience does help but more so all it takes is a little ‘common-sense’ & importantly ‘confidence’ i.e. trusting your ‘instincts’ ie. Instinctual senses that are uncorrupted by ‘trauma’, self absrobtion eg ‘ego’ & other ‘toxic’ psychic elements.

Trying to enter into human ‘relationships’ in the wrong ‘state’ will always prove disasterous ( esp. since they are more than often driven by ‘ego’ ) yes artifice rather than any ‘true’ desire for ‘real’ intimacy ( & ‘genuine’ creativity ) which these kinds of sad neurotic ‘characters’ are generally afraid of & will spend their lives cowardly running away from !

Basically unhindered by these ‘bad’ energies ( tho ‘some’ individuals are ‘terminally’ affected ! ) you more or less know straight away when you’re in the company of the ‘right’ woman ( or ‘man’ from a female perspective ! ).

And its from this basic ‘natural’ foundation ( or ‘communique ) that you can, all things being equal, ( nothings perfect ! ) begin on the journey of a pretty exciting & potentially enriching male/ female relationship !

( Nb. If you wish it often will last but if not & mutually ‘agreed’ you can separate when the time comes & 9 times out of 10 quite amicably i.e. nobody hurt !. )

I’d like to point out ( emphasise ) that
the ‘comment’ above referring to Emily Lee & ‘female’ timebombs i.e. when out on a ‘date’ wiht her & dining in a restaurant cd just as well apply to ‘men’ & in this context is hypothetical.

However the ‘lesson’ here ( one I take & I hope ‘she’ takes ) from her recent Interview ‘ or ( personal ‘revelation’ ) with ‘happiful.com.’ magazine is that this kind of situation was always a ‘real’ possibility. Esp. if Emily having slept with a guy who in her own words ” turned out to be HIV ” in actual ‘fact’ never knew or never found out ( like many ‘real’ cases ) & consequently that relationship null & void, went on to ‘date’ & yes sleep with other guys unawares & like many ‘individuals’ uwittingly spread the ‘virus’ around.

Another thing I’d like to re-emphasise ( or ‘correct’ ) is that in my references to ‘folk’ getting beyond thinking religions are ‘intrinsically’ good what I really mean ( or am trying to emphasise ) in this instance iis that we’ve got to get beyoind the very ‘naieve’ assumption ( i.e. ” All Things Bright & Beautiful ) that ‘religions’ are instrinsically ‘non’ violent. E.g. Check out the ‘old’ Testament & you’ll see many ‘violent’ passages here ‘vividly’ referred to, even ‘stories’ telling of Gods own ‘terrible’ & frightening wrath !.

[ Nb. By ‘ludic’ relationhsip I mean just that i.e. honest heartfelt good cheer, not just ‘jumping’ into bed with the nearest ‘hipster’ with a beard e.g some ‘dude’ with a cromwellian moustache or one of those heavy, grisly, lumberjack affairs ]

Like London Grammars ‘new’ single ” Non Believers ” ? i..e Quote. ‘ all that we are, all that we need, are two different things ‘. The ‘truth’ may sound a little less profound, but please do, ‘Be’ yourself & yes indeed ‘love’, go for it, there is ‘no’ need for God.

Calling all you Busking Singers, Fadistas ( or perhaps one particular budding Diva ! ) out there, a ‘request’, please just one heartfelt ‘personal’ request, or Kareoke ‘interpretation’ if you like.

Q. Please will you ‘sing’ me ( perhaps record on ‘video’ eg. street, home or ‘gig’ ) an acoustic ‘version’ Cover of Jessie Wares beautiful take on the Bobby Caldewell song eg. ” What You Won’t Do For Love ”. I in turn love this piece & the ‘voice’ i.e. wispy & intoxicating ! ”

Thankyou & bytheway keep doing what you’re doing, for although theres ‘no’ absolute truth in this maxim, & there is such a thing as ‘negative’ dialectic expressed in many a ‘song’ as in life, why not start thinking ” things can only get better ” ?, or if not adopt at least the ‘right’ frame of mind !.

Plus perhaps ( for some ! ) start making peace with actual ‘death’. ( raising the question Q. Can we as human beings ever ‘truly’ make peace with death ? ) By that I mean our total or indeed ‘eternal’ ‘oblivion’ ?.

You brave & courageous souls you, you ‘Children Of The Night ‘ ( the ‘title’ of a song written by an ‘old’ mate of mine byeway, not the best ‘busking tune but ideal for folk ‘roots’ afternoons, barn dances & shin-digs ! )

As in ‘love’ as in ‘war’ you know time spent lost in the hot & burning ‘desert’ ( in the latter case rendering him ‘colour’ blind ) can drive a man into self delusion & almost ‘pathological’ fury. Back home on the ‘domestic’ front too but in this case with ‘vision’ clear & him fully awares. Mmmm say no more !.

Tho’ I have to say for some ‘the’ truth can be hard to face, esp very much those little ‘unwanted’ truths. People ( lifes poets ? ) can kill when faced with ‘realities’ such as this & on the ‘spot’, ruthlesslly & without remorse !.

Begging the question ( See. Pro Life v ‘Free’ Abortion Debate ) Q. In the ‘eyes’ ( or POV ) of the pro abortion lobby can the termination of a pregnancy by ‘non’ medical means be ‘rightly’ defined as ‘killing’ that developing foetus or is it technically a wrong definition & as such the event( ‘action’ ) more rightly defined as something else ?.

You know I don’t get on with my ‘parents’, I have kinda in the past but not at present. I don’t see them, I don’t speak to them but you know ‘cases’ such as these ( See. above ) compel me to if not ‘love’ my Father at least ‘respect’ him more & more & these days on ‘refection’ very much !.

Its funny how some ‘iive’ performance pieces you tend to watch or ‘listen’ to once & never again or worst still want to ‘switch-off” ( walk out of ! ) altogether after the first 10 mins ( ‘tho’ out of courtesys sake resist it & patiently sit still ! ).

However this particular ‘video’ ( as in life ‘eternal’ ) I find myself wanting to watch/ ‘listen’ to ( ‘live’ thru ! ) again, again, again & again !.

Neither on the ‘surface’ saturated with language nor in ‘content’ void nor ‘vapid’, this rather poignant song ‘n dance ( intermittant ‘white’ femme rock ) routine, will have you sat ‘fixed’ in the isles ( gazing in on your computer screens ) for the next 40 minutes ‘neigh’ 2 or 3 hrs.

Yes I’m not my ‘usual’ audience self, I leave the theatre surprisingly uplifited ( i.e. not ‘disapointingly’ deflated ) & upon leaving, ( if at home I may have graduated towards ‘i-tunes’ ) you feel the strong inlination to buy the ‘new’ CD !.

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